Maine hikers make their way down from Longs Peak

Two women hikers from Maine managed to make in down on their own after being stranded on Longs Peak since early Thursday morning.

National Park Service officials reported to the Associated Press today that the women were able to get off the icy 14,200-foot peak on their own after bad weather eliminated a helicopter rescue.

They came out on their own,” said Mark Pita, a ranger inside Rocky Mountain National Park. “They are in fine condition. They were not injured.”

The same massive storm system that triggered flash floods across northern Colorado also caused an ice storm at higher elevations that pinned down Connie Yang, 32, and Suzanne Turell, 33. The women erected a tent about 800 feet below the summit and stayed inside it during whiteout conditions.

“The mountain was socked in, no visibility, 12 inches of rain, flash flooding all over the place,” said Patrick O'Driscoll, a Park Service spokesperson.

Before their cell phone battery died, the women used text messages to inform a sister of Yang's in New York City of their situation.

“We need help,” Turell said in one of her last texts around 9 a.m. Thursday. “No injuries. Iced over. Risk of hypothermia. On south ridge.

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Weather thwarted early rescue attempts. Before a serious rescue could be attempted, the women managed to meet up with park rangers on their own.

The park rangers then transported the hikers from a trailhead in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park to Grand Lake, the only way out of the park Friday.